Jakarta – The Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) has filed a pre-trial lawsuit against the police over the arrest of the playwright Ratna Sarumpaet and eight other activists last Tuesday.

PBHI's executive director Hendardi told journalists here yesterday that the suit was filed against the North Jakarta Police Chief and the City Police Chief for allegedly detaining the nine for a period in excess of the 24 hours permitted without an arrest warrant last week.

"We filed the pre-trial suits at the North Jakarta District Court," Hendardi said.

The nine were arrested during a Tuesday morning raid on a seaside bungalow in the Ancol recreational park in North Jakarta where they had planned to hold a "People's Summit" involving government critics and pro-democracy leaders.

Hendardi claimed that the necessary arrest warrant was issued more than eight hours after the 24 hour legal deadline had expired.

According to Hendardi, Sarumpaet has also been accused of insulting and spreading hatred and enmity against the government, a charge that can carry up to seven years in jail.

The other eight detainees, who include Ratna's daughter Fathom Saulina and PBHI lawyer Alexius Surya Tjahaya Tomu, each face up to one year in jail.

Hendardi asserted his firm objection to the charges, saying that the 1963 law restricting political activities on which the charges are based was a product of the Old Order government which proceeded Soeharto's New Order. "It is ironic that ... the New Order is keen to use legal products of the Old Order," he remarked.

"The government must revoke the law and replace it with one that guarantees freedom of expression."

Security authorities banned all mass gatherings and street rallies one week before and after the 11-day General Session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) that returned Soeharto to his seventh consecutive term in office on Wednesday.

Ratna is an activist in Siaga, a pro-democracy group which supported the two prominent figures who nominated themselves as presidential candidates.

However, both candidates, Amien Rais, the outspoken leader of the 28-million strong Muhammadiyah Moslem organization and Megawati Soekarnoputri, the ousted leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party, failed to gain any support from the Assembly.